1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for allocating a data rate in a transmitter having a plurality of antennas, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for allocating a data rate on a layer-by-layer basis in a multi-antenna transmitter.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many techniques for encoding and transmitting a Television (TV) broadcast video to different terminals via an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Among the different techniques, a hierarchical transmission scheme, commonly referred to as Scalable Video Coding (SVC), is more efficient in terms of channel capacity than a currently popular Advanced Video Coding (AVC) scheme. However, because SVC has an increased overhead of about 10 to 30% compared to AVC, SVC requires a higher bit rate than AVC to ensure the same video quality.
Compared to using a single antenna, using multiple antennas increases channel capacity and information throughput in a wireless mobile communication environment. To maximize the benefit of using multiple antennas, various techniques related to spatial multiplexing and space-time coding have been developed and their efficiency has been verified by information theory.
A system supporting multiple antennas (hereinafter, referred to as “a multi-antenna system”) is considered a promising technology for broadcast services requiring high data rates. To prepare for a multi-antenna system being used for a portable broadcasting standard as a broadcast service, e.g., Digital Video Broadcast-Next Generation Handheld (DVB-NGH), efforts have been expended toward improvement of system performance by concatenating Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes to a multi-antenna system.
Therefore, a need exists for a method for allocating an optimum data rate depending on whether the SVC scheme is applied to a multi-antenna system using an LDPC for DVB-NGH.